New blow to Clarke as police mergers programme scrapped

The government's programme of forced police mergers, which was championed by the former home secretary Charles Clarke, has been scrapped, the prime minister confirmed yesterday.

Instead, the 43 forces in England and Wales are to be encouraged to enter into new forms of collaboration, including possibly voluntary mergers, to strengthen the police response to terrorism, organised crime and major incidents such as the Soham murders.

Mr Blair told the Commons yesterday that the plan to reduce the number of forces in England and Wales from 43 to around 20 was still on the agenda, but it had been decided it was not "sensible" to force mergers through.

"It is still important and will be important in parts of the country where there is either merger of forces or certainly a far better strategic capability that crosses border lines," said the prime minister.

His remarks followed the admission by new police minister, Tony McNulty, that many of the mergers would not go ahead and that the process of police restructuring could take several years to complete.

The decision means that the original timetable for police mergers set by Mr Clarke, with most taking place by 2008, has now been abandoned.

He had been prepared to issue parliamentary orders to force them through, with the first wave pencilled in for July 24, and earlier this week accused the new home secretary, John Reid, of being "weak and damaging" in his failure to push ahead with the mergers.

Both main opposition parties claimed a victory on the issue yesterday, with the Conservatives' David Cameron charging the PM with wasting police time and the Liberal Democrats pointing to the failed programme as further evidence of the Home Office's worrying reputation for rushed and ill thought-out proposals.

The final nail in the coffin of forced mergers came yesterday from the Association of Chief Police Officers, which had been their strongest supporter. Acpo president Ken Jones said if the straightforward voluntary merger of the Lancashire and Cumbria forces - which collapsed earlier this week - could not be carried out, it was difficult to understand how more complex and costly mergers were still viable.

Senior police officers, however, believe significant weaknesses in the structure of forces in terms of tackling terrorism and serious and organised crime still have to be urgently tackled.

Backstory
The crusade to push through police force mergers came from Charles Clarke, who was determined to make reform the leitmotif of his period as home secretary. His support for reducing the number of forces in England and Wales from 43 to about 20 was underlined by a report from Denis O'Connor, inspector of constabulary, last year. If the Treasury had funded the programme, the battles over council tax implications would have been less acrimonious.